Fresh & Easy opens in S.F. Bayview-Hunters Point

BAYVIEW-HUNTERS POINT Underserved community welcomes British chain

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, August 25, 2011

Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

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Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is the first new grocery store in Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood to open in over 20 years in San Francisco, Calif., as a sign spinner advertises the market opening on Wednesday, August 24, 2011. less

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is the first new grocery store in Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood to open in over 20 years in San Francisco, Calif., as a sign spinner advertises the market opening on ... more

Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

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Supervisor David Chiu and past supervisor Enola Maxwell (middle) at the opening of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, the first new grocery store in Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood in over 20 years in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, August 24, 2011. less

Supervisor David Chiu and past supervisor Enola Maxwell (middle) at the opening of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, the first new grocery store in Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood in over 20 years in San ... more

Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

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Carolyn Brown from the neighborhood shopping the frozen food section of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, the first new grocery store in Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood in over 20 years in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, August 24, 2011. less

Carolyn Brown from the neighborhood shopping the frozen food section of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, the first new grocery store in Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood in over 20 years in San Francisco, ... more

Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

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Customer assistant Tshambia White (left) watches as store manager Dave Green gets the keys from chief executive officer Tim Mason (right) at the opening of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, the first new grocery store in Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood in over 20 years in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, August 24, 2011. less

Supervisor David Chiu (left) passes through shopping crowd including Betty Wilson (middle) as she heads to shop at the opening of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, the first new grocery store in Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood in over 20 years in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, August 24, 2011. less

Supervisor David Chiu (left) passes through shopping crowd including Betty Wilson (middle) as she heads to shop at the opening of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, the first new grocery store in ... more

Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

Fresh & Easy opens in S.F. Bayview-Hunters Point

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Cynthia Webb had been waiting years for this moment. She figured a few hours more wasn't going to dampen her enthusiasm for the first grocery store to open in San Francisco's Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood in more than two decades.

"I'm excited," the 53-year-old Bayview native said even after she got turned away from the grand opening of the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market because the store was still a few minutes from opening and Webb had to get back to her job as a security guard.

"I came here during my break," Webb said, clutching a coupon for a free canvas grocery bag. "I'll have to come back after I get off work. ... I walk by here, and I've been looking in (as the store was being readied). I just couldn't wait."

She was among dozens of local residents that thronged outside the store at 5800 Third St. while a formal ribbon cutting with city and federal officials went on inside.

Then people streamed in to buy seedless grapes at 67 cents a pound, ready-to-bake tomato and mozzarella pizzas for $2.99 and even sushi, while more than a dozen protesters remained outside denouncing what they said was a lack of real affordable housing in the surrounding development.

The store is the second in San Francisco for Fresh & Easy, a unit of United Kingdom retailing giant Tesco, and the first in a San Francisco neighborhood that some officials have called a food desert - an area with limited access to affordable, nutritious food like fresh produce at a full-size grocery store.

"You're a food desert no more," declared Herb Schultz, the western regional director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Community leaders had tried in vain for years to attract a full-service grocery store to the historically Africa American neighborhood in the city's southeast corner. The major grocery chains have all balked, local leaders said, leaving just smaller markets whose shelves often heavily lean toward processed foods.

Residents would have to drive miles to a store, making it easier to turn to nearby high-fat, high-sodium fast food, which exacerbates health problems like childhood obesity, officials said.

Former Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, whose district included the area, said residents have been calling for fresh produce for years: "It's not as if the Bayview and people in this area have not been fighting for a long time. We just have not been heard."

That changed in 2007, when Fresh & Easy, trying to break into the San Francisco market, announced it would open a store as part of a redevelopment project that includes 400 housing units and two restaurants along the Third Street light-rail corridor.

"When (former) Mayor (Gavin) Newsom and the office of economic development went to every one of those corporations to ask them if they would please consider opening a store on Third Street here in the Bayview, they all said no," Mayor Ed Lee said before nodding to Fresh & Easy Chief Executive Officer Tim Mason. "This guy said yes."

The grocery store has hired just over half of its 40 employees from the surrounding 94124 ZIP code. The setup includes a kitchen where pizza, sushi and other items are made. Other features include a microwave for customers to heat up purchased items.

"You don't have to get fast food," Mason said. "You can get real food."

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